The cabinet led by Emil Boc yesterday attended the Cotroceni Palace, to consult with the president, after Traian Băsescu expressed his discontent with the the lack of measures intended to cut public spending and the slow pace of decentralization.
Traian Băsescu recently said that "he hardly noticed" any layoffs in the public sector, and discussing decentralization, he said yesterday that the process "isn"t truly happening and at fast enough pace".
The head of state explained that he wants to consult with the members of the government on the things that need to be done to accelerate Romania"s exit from the crisis and to prevent her from living on borrowed money: "We can see a little further to the South what happens when a country does that", the president said, referring to Greece"s financial problems.
These aspects were also discussed yesterday by the official of the IMF for Romania, Tonny Lybek, who stated for Mediafax, that the budget deficit target for 2010 that Romania agreed upon with the IMF is already "very big".
Tonny Lybek stressed that on the occasion of the next evaluation of Romania"s economic program by the IMF, the fund will also review the way the steps that the government has taken towards cutting public sector spending:
"On the next evaluation we will review the entire macroeconomic environment. We are reviewing all factors and we will analyze the way the Romanian government has fulfilled its commitments to cut budget spending". The release of a new EUR 850 million tranche of the loan will depend on this evaluation of how much the Government has done to cut public spending.
The parties in the opposition called the meeting between the president and the members of the government "a masquerade" and a new example of "politics for the benefit of TV viewers". They said that instead of that "government meeting",
